Video: Stroman Tapping with Astaire

March 26, 2014

This week in the magazine, I profile the director and choreographer Susan Stroman as she prepares an adaptation of “Bullets Over Broadway.” Earlier in her career, Stroman devised a dance show with her partner, Jeff Veazey, called “Trading Places,” in which they recreated the work of famous dance teams. Veazey died of AIDS in 1988, at the age of thirty-three. This clip—in which they dance in tandem with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, to “Begin the Beguine”—is the last time that Stroman and Veazey danced together. I can’t stop watching their dance. Everything about the conceit of dancing with Astaire and Powell corrupts me with pleasure. I especially like the way Stroman and Veazey make their entrance, and the athleticism of their footwork when the music drops out and the only sound is the syncopation of their tapping feet. It’s everything that Stroman is: talented, concentrated, and joyous.

Recently, I showed Martha, my granddaughter, the video. It was her first exposure to tap dancing. She bounced up and down on my knee as she watched, mesmerized. I know how she feels.